The word 'Wait," anciently spelled Wayghte or Wayte, is derived from the old high German wahten (to keep watch); it is common in the sense of guard or watchman to all the Teutonic languages,[1] the German wacht, Dutch vaght, Swedish vakt and English watch. When used as a verb, its meaning is "to stay in expectation of"; as a noun, it denotes a minstrel watchmen.[2]
When surnames were generally introduced into England in the eleventh century, those who held an office in most cases added its designation to their Christian names, thus: Richard, the minstrel-watchman, who was known as Richard le (the) Wayte, afterward contracted to Richard Wayte. The name has since been spelled Wayte, Wavt, Wayght, Waight, Wait, Waitt, Waite, Wate, Weight, Waiet, etc.[2]
This page lists people with the surnameWait. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.